Friday 22 April 2016

A Bloody Great Bale of Straw in the Wind

... for Drax, that is.  Here's a telling slip by Amber Rudd.  Writing to defend the indefensible Hinkley Point in the Graun, she says:
"new nuclear is the only proven low-carbon technology that can provide continuous power, irrespective of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining"
 - i.e. what we in the trade call baseload.

Oooh.  What about biomass then, lady?  What about Carbon Capture & Storage, that *indispensable* adjunct to the gas plants necessary to balance the intermittent and random output of wind?   Both, like nukes, capable of continuous power and much better still, both what we call dispatchable ...

They know, really.  Biomass mostly isn't low carbon; and CCS is a fantasy.  They know, really.

ND

15 comments:

  1. Would that constitute a legal admission that DECC policy is predicated on a lie?

    I'm assuming not. Govt seems to be remarkable exempt from the consequences of wrong actions - unless it is offending SJWs.

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  2. I sold my Drax shares, fortunately before they tanked completely. I didn't really make much from them but at least I didn't lose half of their value. One of the few times I didn't let inertia decide for me. I've decided I'm not very good at owning shares; I've probably lost more over the years than I've gained. But eventually, even for me, Drax just sounded like a scam; cutting down many trees in the US, shipping the chipped wood to the UK and transported by rail to burn in power station furnaces. That's just insane.

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  3. Does the benefit of saving the carbon outweigh the obvious cost of buy the nuclear power? That is the only calculation that counts, and I suspect we know the answer.

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  4. And despite all this baloney they still haven't been able to shake the 'nasty party' image.

    Perhaps (along with the party logo) they should have changed the name to the Conservation Party.



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  5. Ceedy2:26 pm

    If they were the Convservation Party perahps they might not have sold us down the river since 1974 to supranational bodies EK

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  6. I recall Drax being built, I always said it was a mistake.

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  7. Perhaps (along with the party logo) they should have changed the name to the Conservation Party.

    ...and we would all live in nice georgian houses

    EK, I would vote for you.

    On Nukes, for a small country, they are a bad idea.
    One mistake/terrorist incident/act of god and somerset is gone for a few thousand years.

    Whereas the gases from other industrial processes actually kill more people but do not make machines go 'click'




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  9. As this blog's most ardent Brexiteer... I could literally KISS Obama !

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  10. Not being picky here ...

    But wouldn't Obama have said "... to the back of the line." rather than "... to the back of the queue." ?

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  11. I thought that EK!

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  12. John miller9:14 pm

    The most delicious irony of modern times. Theresa May's unintentional branding of the Tory Party.

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  13. See FT is saying Hinkley decision is being further delayed for a "60 day consultation". Surprise, not. Handily until after brexit vote.

    Wonder if this is to push a no-go decision until after the vote, or to allow a leaving EU decision to be a good excuse, or simply to allow currencies to come to a new norm to inform the financial decision?

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  14. Well if they know (and I doubt you not), why do they go on insisting that we must do more and more stupid stuff, and that the only cure for stupid and wasteful is yet more stupid and wasteful?

    Why? Are they all THAT much in thrall to the EU?

    Baffled.

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